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Create A Motion Graphics Template

If you’re creating a graphic that you are going to use multiple times in a video, one way to cut down on time is to build it in After Effects and create an Essential Graphics template that you can use and customize directly in Premiere. Here’s how to make it work.



Creating the Graphic In After Effects

One of the best uses for these templates is a lower third. When working with a video that has multiple lower thirds, the ability to edit names and descriptions in Premiere can save tons of time.

The first thing you’re going to do is open up the Essential Graphics panel in one of your lower thirds AE projects. Select your composition in the “Master” drop down menu. Go ahead and name your graphic in the box above.

To bring out the properties you’d like to be able to manipulate, click the “Solo Selected Properties” button. This will open up all available properties in your timeline that you can control in Premiere. For this specific lower third, we want the ability to edit both selections of text, as well as the color of the line. 

To do this, all you have to do is drag the property from the timeline to the Essential Graphics panel.
  • To edit the color of the line, go to the drop-down menu of the line and select Contents > Rectangle 1 > Fill 1 > Color.
  • To edit the the selection of text, go to your text element and select Text > Source Text.
Once the properties are in the essential graphics panel, rename them so they’re recognizable when opened in Premiere. You can even add comments if your properties are complex. To make sure you can recognize your template in Premiere, adjust the thumbnail using the “Set Poster Time” button. It will take a thumbnail from wherever your playhead is on your timeline.

After you have everything included onto your Essential Graphics panel, it’s time to export it by clicking “Export Motion Graphics” in the lower right hand side of the panel. It will export as a .MOGRT file (Motion Graphics Template).

Importing the Template into Premiere

Open up your project in Premiere and click on the Essential Graphics tab by going to Window > Essential Graphics. On the very bottom right hand corner, there is a button labeled “Install Motion Graphics Template”. Click it and import the file you just saved in After Effects. The file will import into your library of effects. When you select the file, its customizable properties will be available to change in the Essential Graphics panel.

I recommend creating your own library of graphics you find yourself using consistently in your projects. Go through this process with other types of common graphics, and you don’t have to shuffle between programs to get a simple lower third.

Categories suitable for creation of Essential Graphics templates

We recommend that you create the following categories as they are what video editors look for in Essential Graphics templates.
  • Text animation presets
  • Lower-thirds with embedded graphics
  • Title cards with embedded graphics
  • Icon animations
Compositions or templates with a lot of precomps are not suitable for creation of Essential Graphics templates, as previews are typically slow, and rendering in Premiere Pro and precomp expression controls from Master Composition are buggy. 

Categories not suitable include:
  • Slideshows
  • Image/video placeholders
  • Logo reveals
Tips for uploading of Motion Graphics templates on MotionElements
  • Avoid editable precomps.
  • Additional slider controls should be provided for scale and position offset, with expressions of each property linked to it.
  • Provide as much comments as possible to users, since they may not be familiar with After Effects.
  • Upload the source file so that we can troubleshoot for support issues. Source files will not be provided to users.
  • Use fonts from Adobe Typekit or Google Fonts.
  • Allow controls for opacity, letter tracking and color.
  • Color controls should be provided for items that can change color.

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